RS– The better question is, what’s with the raccoon tattoo on your shoulder? (Which is pretty much an answer to the actual question.)

So for reasons not quite explainable, my family has determined that the raccoon is our totem. (Smart and wily, doing anything for food, not minding to look ridiculous. Protective of young. Adorable.) We encourage (i.e., feed) rather than discourage raccoons in our yard, a thing our neighbors have just had to accept. (We make up for it other ways, such as how our unfertilized, unpesticided scrappy yard makes theirs look good.) We have bonfires in the back yard, wear Davey Crockett hats, and tell raccoon yarns or read odes to the raccoon. We all have raccoon tats. And a tribal raccoon symbol is featured on the shield of my shield maiden costume (but that’s another story).

WP– What is the most memorable place you have ever traveled?

RS –I haven’t traveled outside of the U.S. except for a bit in Canada. But I grew up in Montana, and that’s no small potatoes. I’m not much of a city person—the last time I met my offspring in Philadelphia, I dragged them all off to the Longwood Gardens and the Morris Arboretum. In NYC we hung out in Central Park. (Okay, we did other stuff there, too.)

I do think there’s value in seeing how other humans live their lives and in feeling history as it can be found in other locales. Maybe travel will show up on my bucket list. But I vow in the meantime to learn from the humans I see every day. And nature wows me regardless, whether it’s the Beartooth Mountains or the pond and woods trail down the road from me, part of Pittsford’s greenprint land. (Or, my garden, but then, I have to get to work.)

If it’s all not memorable, you’re not paying attention.

WP–Is there a place you want to visit?

RS –Well, Rosalind James has me all hot about going down to New Zealand and hooking up with an extremely studly rugby player. But I’d probably have my guy Ton along and so that would likely get in the way of the whole footy thing. Still, it sounds totally cool. I have kids who went WOOFing there who loved it. But it felt disconnected to me, to have them always in a different day—that seemed worse than a different hemisphere, a different season.

I’d like to see the moon upside down, though. Or other side up, I guess I should say.

WP – What would you consider one of your greatest accomplishments?

RS –Speaking at my father’s funeral?

Getting rid of that invasive ivy in my yard?

Giving birth three times without pain medication? (Can’t even really claim that, ’cause I might have caved if there’d been an option, but I was at home, so there wasn’t.)

Showing up at work, the day after I lost a baby (someone else’s)?

What’s a great accomplishment? Here’s what I think it is: doing the best you can, every day. That’s what makes you a hero. Just ask Leet and Sadie and Seffie (and Canaan)’s son Tino. He’s only six, and he knows.

More to come…

Tynie’s PlaceRebecca Skovgaard

When Investigator Cooper Billings carries Sylvia Huston into the emergency room, her blood saturating his hands and his clothes, she becomes his. He doesn’t care that his partner accuses him of thinking with his dick or that her godfather is his boss, the
lieutenant, or that her mother gives him the stink eye when she catches him sleeping next to Sylvia in a hospital bed. Or even that Sylvia vows she’ll never love a cop. Lucky for Coop, Sylvia is an earthy, sensual woman, entirely responsive to his heated touch. Once he has her in his bed, he’s sure he’ll wear her down.

Sylvia does her best to resist Cooper. He’s bossy and always thinks he’s in charge. He’s also extremely determined to have her. Strong, handsome and hot, he’s hard to refuse. Maybe she could be falling for him.

But nothing matters more to Sylvie than Tynie’s Place. She’s a midwife, and her birth center is dedicated to the poorest of women and babies. When it comes under threat by gangs vying for control of the drug trade, Sylvia risks her life to defend it. Cooper can’t save her until she learns to trust in his love. Only then will he have her safe in his arms.